Home Birth

So the news is out a huge study which appears not to have been fully published yet appears to show that in Low risk pregnant women who are cared for by a trained midwife are as safe to birth at HOME as in hospital http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7998417.stm. So what as the ACOG going to say about this!

Are women in America going to be be given a true choice where to birth there babies is this choice going to be supported by the health care community - properly not- but progress is progress. What do I think should happen - I think that care of low risk women should be handed over to Certified Midwives - notice I missed out the word nurse I thing that there should be two points of entry in to midwifery in America one from nursing leading to certified midwife - and one from non nursing with longer training leading to the same qualification - this should be done over the next 10 years and every professional who intends to practise in the profession would have to be certified by the same certifying exam - the water would be grey for the next 10yrs but no grayer than it is now and at the end you would have a robust group of highly trained professional ready to take over the care of the family during low risk birth. This care would be cheaper, women and family focused.

Midwifery

How strange it is to live in a country when birth and midwifery do not go hand in hand. All my years of being a midwife in the UK the thousands of women I severed, births I attended and families I met I never once had to justify my role or explain how it is safe for me to care for you. USA the difference is over whelming we may speak the same language ( well some of the time) and be brothers in arms when it comes to war - but when it comes to birth we could not be further a part. Not a day goes past when I do not have to explain what a midwife is how we are trained and experts in normal low risk birth - its exhausting. I know people look at me expect me to grow a second head or have some herbal recipe for every minor pregnancy complication. I know I astonish my nursing colleagues with research, evidence and resent practise which involves safe birth.
So I think practising my beloved profession is going to be challenging in the land free and home of the brave - but I guess I am up for the challenge.